There are many different possible citation styles. We will be using MLA Style, as that is the standard style at Riverside. For more information about the different citation styles, visit the University of California at Berkeley's Citation Style Guide.

Regardless of which style you are using, you need to keep track of some basic information from each of the sources you use. You might want to keep a list of this information or make an index card for each source and put this information on it. Please note: Not all of this information will be available for every source. Gather as much of it as you can and use that to build your citations.

Make sure you look for:
  • the author's name(s) or artist's name
  • the editor's name(s)
  • the title of the source
  • information about which edition of the source you're using
  • the city and state of publication
  • the publisher's name
  • the date of publication
  • the volume and issue number if it is a magazine or journal
  • the URL if it is an online source

If you are using part of a work or a quote rather than the whole work, look for all of the above as well as:
  • the section title
  • the page numbers

If it is an online source, be sure to record the date you accessed it.

If you record all of this information as you go through your research, you will have a much easier time building a bibliography than if you don't.